Stan Lee’s Work Force Book 2, Chapter 8: Lost and Found

“HELLO!? IS ANYONE OUT THERE!?” Mouse yells at the top of her lungs. She looks up at the echoing desk drawer she is currently trapped inside.

“Will you knock it off? No one can hear us at this size,” Ernie Fugnitch grouches.

Ernie bulldozes his way through the numerous death rays and world domination devices that Count Nemesis has stored in his office furniture warehouse. “We’re in a pocket dimension, lady. As far as anyone out there is concerned, we’re a couple of insignificant ants.”

“What do you suggest we do then, Ernie?” Mouse inquires, clearly irritated with Ernie’s attitude.

Ernie haphazardly presses a group of buttons on one of The Count’s computer consoles. “One of these contraptions has to be the doorway outta here. Quit hollering and help me look!” Mouse shakes her head but resigns to help Ernie search the villain’s depot.

Mouse pushes a large box out of the way to discover a decoratively adorned, metal framed portal machine labeled: The Interdimensional Transport Engine. “This looks like something we could use,” Mouse proposes.

“Then what are we standing around yapping about it for!?” Ernie blurts out and pushes a random button on the side of the frame.

The air within the frame starts to shimmer like sweltering heat reflecting off pavement. An ear-piercing throng emits from the space and then goes silent. Ernie and Mouse look at each other dumbfounded. “aaaiiIIEEEE!” They hear a distant scream that’s moving closer by the second.

“AAAIIIEEE!” Portal shrieks as he comes tumbling out of the Transport Engine.

Portal crashes onto the floor in front of Ernie and Mouse. “Oh my goodness! Portal! You’re alive!” Mouse gushes when she sees that it is in fact Portal who came stumbling through the doorway and not some bizarre alien.

“I saw a gateway materialize in the dimension I was trapped in, and I didn’t think twice about diving through,” Portal testifies while brushing himself off. “Luckily it led to you guys! But where are we!?”

“Well that’s great, we’re just as stuck as we were before! Except now we have another mouth to feed!” Ernie grumps.

“Glad to see you too, Ernie,” Portal retorts.

Mouse points upward to the tracks and rollers on the ceiling. “We’re stuck inside The Count’s desk drawer.”

“That’s not weird at all,” Portal states.

“You know what IS weird? Finding a couple of freeloaders stowed away in my secret lair,” a menacing voice proclaims from behind them.

Mouse, Ernie, and Portal whip around to find themselves face to face with Count Nemesis!

What will happen next?! Check back here every Tuesday and Thursday for the latest stories from STAN LEE’S WORK FORCE!